JimCon Part 2: Actual Games

Saturday morning, Gina was feeling sick, so she stuck around the hotel room. I headed down to the venue by myself, hoping this would not signal a bad day at the tournament.

Note: Detailed tournament reports are not going to be available due to my camera taking many blurry photos. Note to self-- always test out a new camera a bit to get used to it before using it for something important.

Game 1

Game 1 was against Jeff Tupper's Mixed mark beastmen. I met Jeff briefly the night before, and like everyone I played this year at JimCon he was a class act. His beats list had an khorne lord, undivided bsb, two undivided shamans, four herds, three chariots, minotaurs, two hound units, undivided bestigors, a shaggoth and a fiend of slaanesh. This game went rather well for me, partially because of the relative strength of the daemons, but also do to some abysmal unruly rolls on Jeff's part. I ended up killing both shamans with attached herds because he was forced to either charge or was drug within an inch of my plaguebearer block. His Lord also frenzied out of his unit and was cut down by bloodletters in a fit of rather poor luck. My Daemon Prince started out the day poorly by failing to do a wound to the chariot he charged, then getting beaten down by a countercharging Shaggoth. All said and done at the end of the game, Jeff didn't have much left, while I still had three intact blocks of infantry, two support units, and a single model left in the Daemonettes. Win #1 for the Daemons.

Game 2

The second game I was pitted against a mixed Chaos Mortals Army played by Hank Hunt. Tzeentch Sorcerer Lord, Slaanesh Herald, Slaanesh Hero, 2 units of Slaanesh Warriors, Slaanesh Knights, 2 units of Slaanesh Horsemen, Hounds, and a War Shrine. An interesting Chaos list to be sure, in that it seemed to obviously lean abit on Tzeentch magic, but didn't have the standard backup sorcerers to make me pay throughout the game. Top of turn 1 his gamble payed off, as he managed to gateway my plaguebearer block with battle standard out of existence! This was not going to be a pretty game, as I was in the hole starting out. Luckily, I kept him from casting gateway for the rest of the game by tying his sorcerer's block up in melee with my daemon prince until I could get help around a few turns later. My daemonettes and flesh hounds took care of his horsemen and flesh hounds rather quickly and followed up by killing his block of warriors with his battle standard, which then panicked his war shrine off the table-- things started to really go my way after this. His knights with hero wrecked my horrors, but where in turn killed by my bloodletters. After going through two summoned exalted heroes and putting 2 wounds on the sorcerer lord, my daemon prince finally died to instability. However, I quickly followed him up in combat with Seekers and flesh hounds, which broke this last unit of warriors and left my opponent with nothing left on the table. The game ended in a complete rout for the Mortals and win #2 for me.

Game 3

Game 3 was against James Hutcherson's High Elves. Last year I lost to a similar force of his, and was determined to not lose again. He brought a wizard lord, bsb on horse, 2 units of archers, 2 units of spearmen, sea guard, 2 lion chariots, a great eagle, 2 swordmaster units, and 2 bolt throwers. This game was truly my Waterloo, as my only effective combat unit (plaguebearers) was kept out combat the whole game while my other units got shot and ASFed to death. My Daemon Prince was killed by bolt throwers turn one to show his total punkness. A good game but a very bad result for me. Loss #1.

Game 4

Game 4 was against Randy Atchely's Empire. He brought a Popemobile, Casketsus, 2 wizards, 2 small knight units, outriders, 2 cannons, handgunners, crossbows, swordsmen, greatswords, detachments, and flagellants. Probably a slightly too strong list (any time your character kit out has internet slang, it's way too cliche), but not any worse than bringing daemons in general, so who am I to complain? As is the game went rather badly for Randy, having his knights held up by spells and the daemon prince, lost both his cannons by turn 4, and did not fight a round of combat with any substantial block the entire game. As it was, the only things he was left with at the end of the game was the great sword unit and all the characters. The Daemon Prince still died at the top of turn 6, though. At least this game he ate through roughly his point cost in troops. Win #3 for the Daemons.

Game 5

My last game was against another member of Team Tennesse with an Empire army. His force had outriders, 2 white wolf units, knightly orders, 2 units of crossbows, 2 cannons, a hellblaster, flagellants, swordsmen, greatswords, an empire general, BSB, and two mages. This game against was a flurry of fits and stops. My deamon prince died turn 1 to a great cannon, and again little to no melee actually happened during the game (empire doesn't fair well in melee anymore, so this should be all that surprising) Beyond all this, I was slightly ahead pulling into the final turn of the game. This game I had rapt up with a chain of linking combats in the final turn to kill the rest of his greatswords with general, if I could only blow through a detachment of 8 halberdiers with my plaguebearer unit. The final result of this is of course an insane courage check and a tied game. Slightly disappointing, but not the worst result that ever happened to me-- this was the first JimCon game 5 I haven't lost.

Conclusion

At the end of the event, my record of 3-1-1 with an average paint and sportsmanship placing was going to leave me on the outside looking in for the top placings. Jim Allen of the Amigos did win overall with a very nice Khorne Daemon army, which was rather nice. I also managed to get a plastic box as a door prize, so my high elf army is a little closer to being completed now.

Gamewise, I had five good games against five good opponents, and it's not often I get to say that anymore. My only real disappointments in the list were the plaguebearers and the daemon prince. The latter is just too fragile and expensive for my playstyle, and the former is simply too many points in too slow of a package that my opponent will easily avoid giving anything to fight. In the future (assuming I bring daemons again) I will probably dump the prince and the nurgle herald in favor of a slaanesh herald, khorne herald, and many more core troops. All in all, JimCon was very enjoyable this year as always, so of course I plan on heading back next year. .